Recommendation 18

Nuclear power contributed around 16% of the UK’s electricity in 2020. As at January 2022, five of the seven AGR stations and the Pressurised Water Reactor at Sizewell B are the only nuclear power stations in the UK currently generating electricity; two of the AGRs, Dungeness B and Hunterston B, closed in June 2021 and January 2022 respectively. A further station is expected to close in 2022, two more in 2024 and the remaining two in 2028. All of the AGR stations will close by 2028, with only Sizewell B and the new station at Hinkley Point C expected to be operating nuclear power stations at that point.30 We inquired whether the lives of the operational AGR stations could be extended as we wait for new generating capacity to come online. EDFE told us that when it bought the AGR stations in 2009 it invested a further £6 billion into extending their operating lives. It explained that it was working closely with the regulator to decide how much longer stations could operate to produce as much electricity as possible from the stations. But it noted that the stations were reaching the technical limits of running safely, having extended the original design life of these stations from 25 to over 40 years. It explained that it had “put in absolutely as much money as they [the stations] can usefully use in terms of the technical limitation” and it was confident that no further investment would allow the stations to be used for longer.31